Arsenal v Palace: Palace have only ever beaten Arsenal four times. The teams and the form.

by Bulldog Drummond

So since others have now realised that the defining issue in Arsenal’s league position, and the best way to predict results, is the difference between the away and home form, let’s take a look at that.

At home we remain a top three club… (these tables were written before all of this weekend’s games were completed).

Pos

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A

GD

Pts

1

Manchester City

18

17

0

1

56

12

44

51

2

Liverpool

17

15

2

0

48

10

38

47

3

Arsenal

17

14

2

1

39

12

27

44

4

Chelsea

17

11

5

1

34

10

24

38

5

Manchester United

16

10

5

1

32

20

12

35

6

Tottenham Hotspur

16

11

1

4

31

13

18

34

Away, Crystal Palace are decently placed being ahead of us in the away league table, although we now have one away game in hand (two over Tottenham, Watford and Palace). A win in that first game in hand would take us into the top six on away form – still not where we want to be but a bit more like it.

Pos

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A

GD

Pts

1

Liverpool

17

11

5

1

29

10

19

38

2

Manchester City

16

11

2

3

31

10

21

35

3

Tottenham Hotspur

18

11

0

7

33

22

11

33

4

Manchester United

17

9

2

6

31

24

7

29

5

Chelsea

17

9

1

7

23

26

-3

28

6

Leicester City

18

7

4

7

27

27

0

25

7

Crystal Palace

17

7

2

8

26

26

0

23

8

Watford

18

6

5

7

26

28

-2

23

9

Arsenal

16

6

4

6

27

28

-1

22

So at home our one defeat remains the opening match of the season against Manchester City, with 14 wins and two draws. Away for Palace, they are a more middle of the road team, with seven wins and eight defeats, and an zero goal balance. Our plus 27 goals at home should see us through.

Incidentally Crystal Palace’s home form is awful – only Huddersfield have a worse home record. And this is not a one off caused by the supporter rebellion we talked about earlier in the season – it is the sixth season running where Palace have been better away from home than at home.

And of course each result matters enormously now because of the bunching around third and fourth place – here is the actual table incorporating both home and away.

Pos

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A

GD

Pts

1

Manchester City

34

28

2

4

87

22

65

86

2

Liverpool

34

26

7

1

77

20

57

85

3

Tottenham Hotspur

34

22

1

11

64

35

29

67

4

Arsenal

33

20

6

7

66

40

26

66

5

Chelsea

34

20

6

8

57

36

21

66

6

Manchester United

33

19

7

7

63

44

19

64

With Tottenham losing to Manchester City away, we have every chance of moving up to third – all we need is a win. A 3-0 victory will put us equal in terms of goal difference, and with the superior number of goals, that again could be helpful.

If we look at results from the start of February for Palace we see this…

Date

Game

Res

Score

Competition

02 Feb 2019

Crystal Palace v Fulham

W

2-0

Premier League

09 Feb 2019

Crystal Palace v WHU

D

1-1

Premier League

17 Feb 2019

Doncaster R v Crystal Palace

W

0-2

FA Cup

23 Feb 2019

Leicester City v Crystal Palace

W

1-4

Premier League

27 Feb 2019

Crystal Palace v Man Utd

L

1-3

Premier League

02 Mar 2019

Burnley v Crystal Palace

W

1-3

Premier League

09 Mar 2019

Crystal Palace v Brighton

L

1-2

Premier League

16 Mar 2019

Watford v Crystal Palace

L

2-1

FA Cup

30 Mar 2019

Crystal P v Huddersfield T

W

2-0

Premier League

03 Apr 2019

Tottenham H v Crystal Palace

L

2-0

Premier League

06 Apr 2019

Newcastle Utd v Crystal P

W

0-1

Premier League

14 Apr 2019

Crystal Palace v Man C

L

1-3

Premier League

Taking the last eight games five have been defeats, although their fixture list has been tough, for since 27 February they have played Manchester United, Tottenham Hots and Manchester City. They have lost all three.

Arsenal across the same period from the start of February but removing the Europa games to make it more comparable, have two defeats, both away. All four home games have been won.

Date

Game

Res

Score

Competition

03 Feb 2019

Manchester City v Arsenal

L

3-1

Premier League

09 Feb 2019

Huddersfield Town v Arsenal

W

1-2

Premier League

24 Feb 2019

Arsenal v Southampton

W

2-0

Premier League

27 Feb 2019

Arsenal v AFC Bournemouth

W

5-1

Premier League

02 Mar 2019

Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal

D

1-1

Premier League

10 Mar 2019

Arsenal v Manchester United

W

2-0

Premier League

01 Apr 2019

Arsenal v Newcastle United

W

2-0

Premier League

07 Apr 2019

Everton v Arsenal

L

1-0

Premier League

15 Apr 2019

Watford v Arsenal

W

0-1

Premier League

Also encouraging is Palace’s run against Arsenal. Palace have won just one of the last 18 games between the two, since the start of 1995 and that was on 10 April 2017 when we lost 3-0 away. Indeed the home results over that period look quite interesting…

Date

Game

Res

Score

Competition

15 Feb 1998

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

D

0-0

FA Cup

21 Feb 1998

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

W

1-0

Premier League

14 Feb 2005

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

W

5-1

Premier League

02 Feb 2014

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

W

2-0

Premier League

16 Aug 2014

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

W

2-1

Premier League

17 Apr 2016

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

D

1-1

Premier League

01 Jan 2017

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

W

2-0

Premier League

20 Jan 2018

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

W

4-1

Premier League

Just two draws among the wins. And indeed if we bring into account all of the games between the two sides since we first met in 1934, we have won 28 and Palace have won four.

Sokratis is banned and Ramsey is freshly injured. Suarez is recovering we are told.

14 comments to Arsenal v Palace: Palace have only ever beaten Arsenal four times. The teams and the form.

Off topic but there are two Women’s matches today. We play Everton in the WSL with a 12:30 kickoff, which I’m on my way to. This match is on Television, not sure offhand if it’s the BBC Red Button it BT Sport. Either way you should’ve able to catch it on UK.

At 15:30 our U21 Women’s team play Man United in the final of the FA Cup for that age group. As our U21 team is effectively an U 18 team they have done brilliantly to get this far, win or lose this afternoon they can be proud of their achievement.

Despite that football match result can a times turn against the form book, but notwithstanding this, I cannot see any reason that will make me to hesitate in my thoughts that the current inform Arsenal first team will not beat Crystal Palace in today’s PL match encounter at the Ems. For, there is even the incentive to go 3td in the table in the match that should push Arsenal to beat C Palace and regain the 3rd spot in the table from Tottenham Hotspur. And I believe Arsenal won’t miss this chance to go 3rd in the table this afternoon. But will seize the chance and make good of it and go 3rd. More so, as going 3rd this season could turnout to be a golden chance to get a Champion League spot next season for a 4th placed PL club side this season might not get a Champion League spot next season according to some football analysts. Save, it it won the Europa League Cup this season. Therefore, Arsenal should beat C Palace to go 3rd today unfailingly. And from there as a safeguard continue to remain 3rd till season’s end. I believe Emery and the Gunners know much about this.

Arsenal Women winning by Two nil at half time. Strange game, we haven’t really played at anything like our best but have never looked like being in any kind of trouble. Miedema got our second and her 21st of the season.

Final score at Borehamwood two one. A moment of madness by Sari cab Veenendaal in our goal when she picked up a backpasd and was rightly penalised by an indirect kick about 8 metres from goal. Needless to say they made no mistake.

Mead was completely taken out and the Everton player rather lucky to get away with a yellow card. Could easily have been red. Fortunately Beth was able to shake off the injury but it could easily have been a season ending one. Many of the referees in the women’s game don’t seem to be able to recognise the difference between poor challenges warranting a yellow card and a really nasty one which warrants a red.

ManU needed a treatment just before half time, that man substituted at half time. Everton needed a treatment after the restart, which required a substitution a couple of minutes later. Nearing the end of the game, ManU inflict another treatment, which also requires a substitution.

With their lacklustered performance away to Everton in the PL this afternoon culminating to the Red Devils losing the match 4 nil to the Toffers, the questions that are begging for answers now are, have Man Utd preferred to play in the Europa League over the Champions League next season? And for this unlikely unwelcome position to the Man Utd hierarchies who have been sacking their managers with reckless abandon, is Ole Gunnar Solstjaer, the current Man Utd manager in line to get the sack soon after he was appointed the Man U manager to make him the 4th Man Utd manager to be sacked since the departure of the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson from the club? Legendary? But the result of the Arsenal match away to Man United at Old Trafford in the PL in Arsenal 50th match in the PL across 2 season campaigns that might had seen Arsenal unbeaten for 50 consecutive matches in the PL if officiating in the match had been fair in the match. But for the cynical way the match was refereed by the Pgmo referee, Anthony Taylor who rigged the result of the match to favour Man Utd, Arsenal lost the match. This event has led me to question if Sir Alex was that legendary at Man Utd after all the unfairness in the game that was done against Arsenal in the game that day.